THE GREATEST DESIRE OF THE NEW AFFECTIONS
[p. 146] THE GREATEST DESIRE OF THE NEW AFFECTIONS
Do you believe that the highest, greatest and best desire of your heart is yours, you have only to enjoy it? The highest, greatest and best desire of your new affections is to be in conscious union with Christ, no higher position could be given to you; but though it is yours, you do not enjoy it but as you realise it in His presence. Rebekah came to Isaac.
Without nearness to Him, you can never apprehend union with Him. Grace has accomplished everything, but while many are clear about grace, they are not clear that the Spirit in me is the measure of my knowledge and acceptance of the grace; and He makes no mistake. He never passes me from one form to another until He has made me fit for it. The flesh cannot help. The effect of beholding Christ’s glory is like the moon reflecting the sun, partial at times because the earth intervenes. The great effect of being near the Lord in glory is that your self is in abeyance. This it is that causes the natural reluctance to be near. We must part with ourselves, but we rejoice in it when we really desire to be influenced by Him. If there were no self there would be a body of light, not by reading or praying, but by being near Him. There would be transformation. Until one is at home with Christ where He is, one cannot appreciate union, for when union is known, individuality is merged; I am my Beloveds — I belong to Another....
Love is only known as you are near. Love lives on reciprocities. See Canticles. It is by His dwelling in my heart by faith that I know His love.
I trust each of you can thank the Lord for some special communication from Himself during the meetings. I should like to hear your thanksgiving to the Lord; I do not ask you to tell me. It is a great blessing when one can own to Him any grace which one has received from Him. “She fell down before him and told him all the truth”.
The Lord grant that each of His own may have received [p. 147] something from Himself. He likes the heart to be conscious of His gift and of His voice. In Song of Songs 2: 8, it is the voice of my Beloved; and then in Song of Songs 2:10, “My beloved spake”. May you sit under His shadow with great delight, and may His fruit be sweet to your taste. Wonderful to know that the love in Christ which we taste of now, we shall live in for ever with one another by-and-by. May the Lord greatly bless each of you.